Strategy-type military game

ABSTRACT

A divided playing board having its divisions numbered from 1 to 6, differently colored playing pieces representing ships of different types, individual boards on which said pieces are disposed, shields for concealing said boards, a die for selecting one of said board divisions, and identical marker cubes having faces of the same colors as the colors of said pieces.

Umted States Patent l 13,565,436

[72] Inventor Arthur Opmeer [56] References Cited 2112 Zion Road, Grand Junction, Colo. UNITED STATES PATENTS 81501 1,554,094 9/1925 11111 16161 273/131 1 PP 7671089 2,053,598 9/1936 Blau .1 273/130 22 :fledtd gag-$2,132? 3,353,329 11/1967 Board 273/131 [45] FOREIGN PATENTS 516,054 2/1955 Italy 273/130 [54} STRATEGY-TYPE MILITARY GAME 5 Claims, 10 Drawing Figs.

273/130 A63! 3/00 Field of Search 273/ l 30, 131, 135, 136

Primary Examiner-Delbert B. Lowe Attorney-Richard D. Law

ABSTRACT: A divided playing board having its divisions numbered from 1 to 6, differently colored playing pieces representing ships of different types, individual boards on which said pieces are disposed, shields for concealing said boards, a die for selecting one of said board divisions, and identical marker cubes having faces of the same colors as the colors of said pieces.

- PATENIEB FEB23 |97| GH J ABCDE INVLNIUR v Opmeer .5WF I 6' a 4 a n Hmm 6 ABCDEFGH Arthur A TTO/PNEY STRATEGY-TYPE MILITARY GAME This invention relates to improvements in strategy-type military games, particularly to the facilitation of larger numbers of players than two as have heretofore been able to participate, and the introduction of an element of chance as well as a unique marking system to record the action.

Games of this nature, of course, have been known for some length of time but have been limited to two players. Commonly the game consists of two grids of a variable number of numbered and lettered spaces for participation of two players. The game is played by each player covering a series of adjoining spaces and designating them certain types ships corresponding to the number of spaces making up each particular type of ship. The play of the game is relatively simple. Thestarter, and then the other player in turn, names a space and his opponent checks on his grid to ascertain whether or not one of his ships is on the named space. If it turns out that one of his ships or a part of one includes the named. space, he must declare a hit. The main problem with the simple game is that only two players may play at any one time and the play is. only on one board.

It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a strategy-type military game having means for a greater number of participants than two.

Another object of the invention is to provide a strategy-type military game having means to further add random elections by the use of a die to indicate which opponent's board is to be played upon. 1

Another object of the invention is to provide a strategy-type military game using removable marking devices on a grid board to enable frequent reuse of the game, as well as providing an accurate and complete recording system.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention can be readily ascertained by referring, to the following description and appended illustrations'in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a playing'board for common use of all players according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an individual player's position board according to the invention;

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 are top plan views of indicators, in enlarged detail, or ship" indicating pieces for use on'the large common use board and the individuals board according to the invention',

FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 are perspective views of identical marker cubes with different faces showing;

FIG. 9 is a top plan view of another size ofindicator; and

FIG. 10 is a developed view of the surfaces of a cube indicating the numbering of the faces from 1 to 6.-

In the game selected for illustration, a main or common use playing board it), illustrated in FIG. 1, is' composed of six grids of one hundred squares, each with the abscissa axis numbered and the ordinate axis lettered, thereby providing an identification for each square on the individual grids. The identification of the squares is normally given initially by the letter indicating the horizontal line and then by'the numeral indicating the vertical line, as for example, square F-9. The board '10 maybe a cardboard-type playing board with the grids, numbers and letters printed thereon or it may bemade of other material such as plastic, wood, metal, etc. 'For larger boards it is preferable that there be fold lines, usually between the grids, to provide means for folding for reducing the size of the overall board. The individual player'splaying board, illustrated in FIG. 2, comprises a grid printed on a board 12 which is, likewise, a cardboard or other type playing field, and a cardboard or other material shield 14 providedwith crease or fold marks 16 and 18 provides a fence around the individuals board to prevent observation of his board by the opponents of the game. The markers of FIGS. 3, 4, 9 and 5 are cardboard or other thin material pieces colored to represent a particular type of ship. For example, a cardboard rectangle 20, FIG. 3, is colored to illustrate yellow which represents a cruiser, a cardboard square 22, FIG. 4, is colored blue to indicate a submarine and the cardboard rectangle 2d of FIG. 5 is colored red to indicate an aircraft carrier. FIG. 9 is a pink colored marker 25 indicating a destroyer. It is to be noted that the representations of FIGS. 3, 4, 9 and 5 are out of scale in both dimensions with the playing board and the grid, and this is of no significance merely for illustrative purposes. In the actual device, the carrier is exactly four spaces long, the cruiser is three spaces long, the submarine isone space long, the destroyer is two spaces long, and all are one space wide. In one form of the game, the squares on the large playing board are larger than those on the small grids of the individual players and so two different sizes of each of the types of ships are provided; the larger fitting the squares of the main playing board, and the smaller fitting the squares of the small board. The identical markers of FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 are cubes having each of the six faces individually colored a different color. A cube 30 of FIG. 6 is provided with colored faces including a black face 31, a yellow face 32 and a red face 33. Acube 34 of FIG. 7 includes a white face 35, a blue face and a pink face 37. The cube 38 of FIG. 8 includes a blue face 39 and a red face 40. Each marker cube has one red face, one yellow face, one pink face, and one blue face along with a white face and a black face. The reason for the different colored faces will be explained below. Forthe game as illustrated 250 markers are supplied, and 132 representations'of ships (66 large and 66 small) are provided for six players. The other piece of mechanism for the game required is onedie, which is a standard cube with the faces having marks from Lto 6, as shown in FIG. 10.

As pointed out above the objectof the game is to discover and sink the opponent's ships. The sinking is accomplished by hitting a ship over its entire length. In one form of the game the players receive points for each ship sunk, one point system being as follows:

Aircraft Carrier 4 points Cruiser 3. points Destroyer 2 points Submarine 10 point The game may be played for a set period of time or until all ships have been sunk. When a player has lost all of his ships he is out of the game. The person with the highest score wins the game.

For purposes of the game illustrated in the drawings, the following terms are defined. Target areas are the individual grids of the larger board 10 and each grid includes a block of I00 squares or targets. The grid 12 is a small grid of squares where each player. deploys his fleet behind the fence so as to prevent the other players from observing his fleet layout. A targetshot is one square within the target area. The attack is where a player makeshis move by calling out a target shot by letter and number. A hit, which must be reported by an opponent, is where the player calls a target shot containing one of the opponent's ships. The markers are the colored cubes and the ships are colored cardboard strips.

In preparation for a game, each player is assigned a target area and each player takes an individual grid and places a. shield around it. Each player then deploys his fleet on his grid,

and this fleet remains stationary and unobserved by the other players throughout that particular game. The ships may be deployed any place on the grid in horizontal or vertical position but may not touch one another thus creating a buffer zone of at least one square around them. The game is started by each of the players in turn throwing the die and the high number starts the game. In the event of a tie on the roll, the players with the same number reroll the die until a winner is chosen. Then play proceeds clockwise around the board from the winner. The winner first determines the target area against which his attack will be launched by throwing the die, and the number on the target area corresponding to the number on the. die determines the target area at which that player can shoot. There are two exceptions, the first being that if the player throws the number of his own target area he forfeits his turn,

and when only two players are playing the game the dieis not used. When less than six players are available, the die is rerolled in the event the number of a target area that is not being used turns up. The player launches his attack by calling out three targets, and a marker for each of the three shots is placed in each of the three squares in the target area (selected by the die throw) with the white face up. The player whose target area has been attacked must report the results of the attack. This player may report no hits; when one or more ships are hit he must report this fact; when one ship is hit two or three times he must report that fact, etc. A ship is sunk when its entire length has been hit, Le, a submarine requires one hit, a destroyer two hits, etc. After the report by the player whose target area has been attacked, the attacker then turns the markers to record the action. Thus, when there are no hits the markers are turned black face up. When a ship is hit the markets are turned with the colors indicating the types of ships hit in uppermost position. The player making the hit indicates a hit on his individual board. Thus several players can score hits on a single ship. For example, when an aircraft carrier is hit, the one indicated as hit of the ship's three markers is turned with the red in uppermost position.

The game continues with each player in turn launching an attack according to the procedure outlined above, and for each time the target area being selected by a throw of the die. ln this manner, an attacker can not predetermine the target area which he desires to attack. As the markers accumulate in their various target areas they will guide subsequent players in launching attacks on the opponents areas. If any errors occur in reporting, these will, of course, show up as the game proceeds and they will be charged against the person who made the error (the owner of the ship in question), normally deducting the same number of points as would have been scored by sinking the particular ship.

Once a ship has sunk the markers are removed from the playing board and replaced with a representation of the ship that has that has been sunk. The markers in the buffer zone,

immediately surrounding the sunken ship, are removed also.

While the invention has been illustrated by reference to a particular device there is no intent to limit the spirit or scope of the invention to the precise details'so set forth except as defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A game of the military strategy-type comprising:

a. a main game board having at least four separated grids thereon, each said grid including a plurality of separately identified spaces, and each grid being separately identified;

b. at least four separate, individual boards having grids;

c. a shield for each said individual grid to prevent view of a player's grid by the other players;

(1. a plurality of playing pieces for each individual grid to indicate an object to be covered by an opponent, there being four types of pieces of different colors;

e. a plurality of cubes, four faces of each of which are colored to match the colors of the pieces, one of the remaining faces being white and the other being black; and

f. a die having the same identification on its faces as said grids on said main board.

2. A game according to claim 1 wherein said main board has six separate grids and six separate individual grids are provided.

3. A game according to claim 2 wherein said six grids on the main board are numbered 1 through 6 and said die has indicia representative of numbers 1 through 6 on its faces.

4. A game according to claim 1 wherein said pieces include a plurality of each of the four types.

5. A game according to claim 1 wherein each grid is marked off in spaces. 

1. A game of the military strategy-type comprising: a. a main game board having at least four separated grids thereon, each said grid including a plurality of separately identified spaces, and each grid being separately identified; b. at least four separate, individual boards having grids; c. a shield for each said individual grid to prevent view of a player''s grid by the other players; d. a plurality of playing pieces for each individual grid to indicate an object to be covered by an opponent, there being four types of pieces of different colors; e. a plurality of cubes, four faces of each of which are colored to match the colors of the pieces, one of the remaining faces being white and the other being black; and f. a die having the same identification on its faces as said grids on said main board.
 2. A game according to claim 1 wherein said main board has six separate grids and six separate individual grids are provided.
 3. A game according to claim 2 wherein said six grids on the main board are numbered 1 through 6 and said die has indicia representative of numbers 1 through 6 on its faces.
 4. A game according to claim 1 wherein said pieces include a plurality of each of the four types.
 5. A game according to claim 1 wherein each grid is marked off in 100 spaces. 